§ 24.02 Voluntary Intoxication: General Principles

§ 24.02 Voluntary Intoxication: General Principles¹³

[A] Definition of "Voluntary Intoxication"

[1] In General

The term "voluntary intoxication" rarely is defined by the courts, which prefer instead to provide examples of the very few circumstances in which intoxication is involuntary. Basically, intoxication is "voluntary" if the actor is culpable for becoming intoxicated. Such culpability exists if the person knowingly ingests a substance that he knows or should know can cause him to become intoxicated, unless the substance was a prescribed medication or he was coerced to ingest it.¹⁴

Once an actor voluntarily ingests a known intoxicant, courts are unsympathetic to claims that the substance had an unexpected effect on the actor. For example, in People v. Velez,¹⁵ D knowingly puffed on a marijuana cigarette at a social gathering, unaware that it was laced with the more powerful phencyclidine (PCP). D, while in an unconscious state precipitated by the PCP, assaulted V with a deadly weapon. The court held that for purposes of intoxication law, D was "voluntarily" intoxicated, because it was "common knowledge that unlawful street drugs do not come with warranties of purity or quality associated with lawfully acquired drugs, such as alcohol."

[2] Alcoholism, Drug Addiction, and "Voluntary Intoxication"¹⁶

The common law treats intoxication resulting from alcoholism or drug addiction as voluntary. In general, "an irresistable [sic] compulsion to consume intoxicants caused by a physiological or psychological disability does not render the ensuing intoxication involuntary."¹⁷ The law treats the alcoholic's first drink of the day, and the drug addict's first use of narcotics on a particular occasion, no differently than it does the actions of the ordinary drinker and casual user of drugs.

As a matter of constitutional law, a state may not punish a person for the status—the condition—of being addicted to narcotics¹⁸ or, presumably, of being an alcoholic. On the other hand, an alcoholic may constitutionally be punished for conduct resulting from his intoxication, such as public drunkenness;¹⁹ and a drug addict may not use his condition as a defense to the crime of drug possession or offenses committed in support of his drug habit.²⁰ Constitutional law in this regard is discussed elsewhere in the text.²¹

[B] General Rules

[1] No Excuse

Courts commonly state that voluntary intoxication never excuses criminal conduct.²² This is a somewhat misleading statement: Although...